The Worldwide Web, or simply, the “Web,” has become a form of global information resource that can be easily accessed with just a Web browser and a connection to a wide area internetnetwork, particularly, the Internet. Generally, individual pages of Web content are freely available for browsing and can contain both static and interactive content of multiple media types, particularly, textual and visual content. Web content can be navigated through a read, point, and click procedure to “surf” through successive Web pages to satisfy an information goal. Typically, collections of related Web pages are structured into a hierarchical Web site through hyperlinks that associate distal information contained in a linked Web page through proximal cues contained in the linking Web page.
By virtue of the wide spread acceptance enjoyed by the Web, individuals, businesses, and other interests are placing increasing reliance on the Web as a major means of communication, particularly in the commercial sector where effective advertising, information dissemination, and collaborative data sharing are necessary aspects of electronic commerce. Ensuring user satisfaction is crucial, particularly where revenue is derived, for instance, through advertising for third parties, and where generating traffic through repeat visits is tied to revenue goals.
However, user satisfaction in browsing a particular Web page is subjective. Indirect measures for gauging user satisfaction include capturing click patterns and counting repeat visits, but such measures only provide generalized indications of potential interest level in the Web content. Observable indicia, such as clicks, are not tied to an objective measure of goodness or satisfaction and could equally reflect a random or wrong choice by the user. Similarly, user satisfaction in browsing an entire Web site is also subjective. Click patterns can be traced to identify the most popular hyperlinks, but such measures fail to reflect whether users were satisfied with the results of their visit. Quantifying user satisfaction therefore requires assigning meaning to user actions.
User satisfaction on per page and entire Web site bases can be quantified by tying user satisfaction to an information need or goal. Generally, users visiting a Web site are looking for particular information and will stop searching when either the information is found through page-by-page navigation, a dead end or wrong result is reached, or they give up in their search. Accordingly, user satisfaction can be quantitatively measured by determining whether user information needs are being satisfied by the Web site.
Conventional Web site quantitative evaluation focuses on performing traffic analyses. Individual visits are traced and repeat visits are tracked to generate statistics on Web site traffic. Although these measures provide a general idea of user behaviors, such information fails to provide an indication of whether user information needs were met or how a Web site might be improved through modified structuring and proximal cues.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to providing quantitative measures of the goodness of a Web site based on a priori user information needs. Preferably, such an approach would provide an upper bound on the potential goodness of a Web site effected through changes in hyperlink structure and information cues.